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Notes for people who perform Shakespeare.

What the verse is telling you, how to learn a speech, and which monologue to audition with. Every piece ends in a scene you can rehearse aloud.

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  1. How to memorize a Shakespeare monologue in a week A day-by-day method for learning a speech in seven days. Read for the argument, anchor on the lines that break the metre, and drill the cue joins.

    Technique Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II 7 min read

  2. "To be, or not to be": what the punctuation tells an actor The Folio and the Second Quarto point the speech differently, and where you stop changes who Hamlet is. A reading for people who have to say it out loud.

    Close Reading Hamlet, Act III, Scene I 7 min read

  3. Which Macbeth speech should you audition with? Six candidates compared on length, how much plot you have to establish first, and how over-used they are. Every row links straight into its scene.

    Auditions 8 min read

  4. Scansion for actors: where the verse tells you to breathe Iambic pentameter as performance instructions rather than a literary term. Where the line pushes, where it stalls, and what to do about it.

    Technique Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII 7 min read

  5. Building a voice partner that reads every other part What actually happens when you press Rehearse, what cue mode and line masking are doing, and which parts of a session this page does not control.

    Behind the Scenes 8 min read